Ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) have today being slated to appear before the house for the defence of their allocations in the 2025 budget estimates. According to the schedule by the lawmakers during the budget process, the first sets of MDAs are expected to appear before the Senate and House of Representatives joint committees.
The lawmakers have plan to conclude the defence on January 18 to enable the Appropriation Committees of the two chambers to work on the details and make the clean copy available for passage, as the whole budget has been pencilled for presentation come 31st January.
Meanwhile, a retreat to take input from the public on the Appropriation Bill presented by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on December 18 last year has been slated for Thursday.
The National Assembly are expected to resume plenary from holiday on January 14, the Appropriation while Committee and standing committees have been working.
Subsequently, it is expected that upon resumption, lawmakers will be given a two-week break from plenary to enable them to conduct a thorough scrutiny of the budget business.
It was learned that chairmen of appropriation committees of the Senate (Olamilekan Adeola) and that of House of Representatives (Abubakar Bichi) have released the timelines and the process leading to the budget passage.
Senator Adeola said: “The President laid the budget before the Senate on December 18, 2024, and the second reading was done on December 19, 2024.
“From there, it was transmitted to the Committee on Appropriation to carry out all other necessary actions.
“The first thing we have succeeded in doing is to ensure that the hardcopy of this document was given to all committee chairmen as their working document.
“This is to enable the committees to invite all the MDAs to defend whatever has been allocated to them in that document, starting with their personnel, overhead, and capital, after which, we are expecting the report back from the 15th of January to the 18th of January, he added.
“From there, collation and tidying up of the document will commence with the Committee on Appropriation, and by 31st of January, it is expected that we should lay before the National Assembly the report of the Committee on Appropriation on the 2025 Appropriation Bill for its eventual passage by the National Assembly, that is, both chambers of the Senate and the House of Representatives.”
Meanwhile, Adeola has assured Nigerians that the committees would work round the clock to ensure the job done on schedule.
He said: “This (yesterday) morning, we held a meeting with all members of the Committee on Appropriation.
“There is a need for us to understand the direction in which we are going as far as the 2025 Appropriation Bill is concerned.
“The time frame is short but we have no choice but to work hard and that is why I must thank all my colleagues who agreed with us to shelve their holidays so that we can commence work on this all-important document.
“We will do that with all vigour and ensure that all that needs to be done on this document must be done.
“So, the 31st of January is a tentative date to guide our workings. If there is a need to extend the passage beyond the 31st of January, we will not hesitate to do that.
“But for us to have a working document that works for everybody, we have put it that the 31st of January is a date for us to pass it.
“I know for a fact that by the time we resume on the 14th of January, the Senate will give a two-week break so that we can do our usual ritual of consultation with the MDAs for the next two weeks and then follow up with a report.
“We are open as a committee and we are ready to work together and ensure that whatever issues are raised on the document, we are available to listen and to do all that is necessary to ensure that we have a document that works for all Nigerians.
“Also, the Committee on Appropriation will be organising a budget retreat on Thursday so that all relevant stakeholders can have an insight into the real content of the document.
“We want to have a synopsis of ideas of what is contained in that document for the benefit of Nigerians and that will come up on Thursday.
Meanwhile, Bichi while speaking to journalists shortly after the inauguration of his committee said that the MDAs that will face his committee should round up latest 17th January.
Subsequently, the harmonised reports from the MDAs would be laid at plenary on January 31, he added.
The committee chair said: “By tomorrow (today), we will start the budget defence with all the MDAs.
“From tomorrow (today) to January 17, we are going to do our budget defence and we will likely harmonise on January 22 and God’s willing, by January 31, we are going to lay our reports.
“We are going to study the budget; all our committees will study the budget.”
